A radiant heat driven chemical reactor can be used to drive a number a processes including a process to generate syngas. Some prior art describes a detailed model for radiation to particulates and then convective heat transport from the particulates to the gas in a single tube solar-driven reactor. This system uses very small particles, where the continuum assumption is no longer valid and molecular transport must be considered. Some other prior art describes a directly radiated fluidized bed of ZrO2 and SiC particles that heats an inert gas rather than entrained particles in a reactant gas and absorb radiation and aid in transferring energy to the reactant gas. Other sources teach about radiation heat transfer in combustion systems but teach that in combustion systems, radiation is a common method of heat loss for the gas, which transfers energy to particulate products by convection that subsequently radiate the energy away. This is generally the opposite of using a particle as a heat aid to transfer heat to the gas phase to cause and sustain the reaction.